Blaise Pascal

“I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.”

“Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.”

“Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.”

“Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.”

“We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.”

“Nothing is as approved as mediocrity, the majority has established it and it fixes its fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.”

“Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.”

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.”

“Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.”

“Law, without force, is impotent.”

“There are three sources of belief: reason, custom, inspiration.”

“Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.”

“The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.”

“The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice.”

“People often mistake their imagination for their heart, & so often are convinced they are converted as soon as they start thinking of becoming converted.”

“The last thing we discover in composing a work is what to put down first.”

“All of our reasoning ends in surrender to feeling.”

“We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it.”

“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”

“He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright.”